CURRENT LITERATURE.
Introductory Lecture on Arclueology. Delivered before the University of Cambridge by Churchill Babington, Disney Professor, dec., &c. (Deighton, Bell, and Daldy.)—This is an admirable summary of the subject-matter of archaeology. Beginning with an excellent definition archaeology is the science of teaching history by its monuments,—the Disney Professor proceeds to give a masterly survey of the whole field in which he proposes to range. The drift and the caverns of Western Europe, with the lake settlements of Switzerland, out of which has issued the theory of the three ages, extending from the quaternian geological epoch to the times of the Roman Empire ; the Egyptian and Assyrian remains (when due justice is done to Mr. Layard, and upon certain idle jesters who have quizzed the hierophants); the scanty monuments of ancient Judea; the Greek and Roman sculpture, architecture, coins, and gems ; the contents of the Celtic barrows and of the excavated villas of the Romano-British period; the ivory carvings and illuminated mann- adepts of the earlier middle ages; the magnificent structure; ecclesiastical
and secular, of later times, with all their accessories of mosaics, frescoes, and painted glass ; all these are brought under review, and a very clear general notion afforded. The lecture concludes with some useful hints as to the qualifications of an archaeologist, and a list of the best works of reference in the several branches of the study.
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